CONCERT PREVIEW: 3 Doors Down unplugs for tour headed to Cohasset

Local fans who catch 3 Doors Down at any of their area stops next week will be in for an unusual treat: an all-acoustic show featuring stripped-down versions of the band's most well-known songs, along with back-catalog material and choice covers.

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By Chad BerndtsonFor The Patriot Ledger

The Herald News, Fall River, MA

By Chad BerndtsonFor The Patriot Ledger

Posted Jul. 28, 2014 at 11:31 AM
Updated Aug 5, 2014 at 10:16 AM

By Chad BerndtsonFor The Patriot Ledger

Posted Jul. 28, 2014 at 11:31 AM
Updated Aug 5, 2014 at 10:16 AM

3 DOORS DOWN ACOUSTIC

Songs from the Basement, with Amy LaVere. At South Shore Music Circus, 130 Sohier St., Cohasset, Wednesday, July 30, at 8 p.m. $51-$77 at the box office and via ...

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3 DOORS DOWN ACOUSTIC

Songs from the Basement, with Amy LaVere. At South Shore Music Circus, 130 Sohier St., Cohasset, Wednesday, July 30, at 8 p.m. $51-$77 at the box office and via www.themusiccircus.org. Doors open at 7 p.m.

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It’s been nearly a decade-and-a-half since “Kryptonite” blared from radios and 3 Doors Down released “The Better Life,” its debut album, which went on to be certified six-times platinum in the United States. But to hear frontman Brad Arnold tell it, the band is in a better place than it’s been in years – and still has plenty of growing to do.

Local fans who catch 3 Doors Down at any of their area stops next week – Sunday at Cape Cod Melody Tent, Wednesday at South Shore Music Circus and next Friday at Newport Yachting Center in Newport, R.I. – will be in for an unusual treat: an all-acoustic show featuring stripped-down versions of the band’s most well-known songs, along with back-catalog material and choice covers.

The format seems less likely for a band closely associated with power-packed, radio-ready rockers like “When I’m Gone,” “Here Without You,” “Let Me Go” and “Duck and Run.” But according to Arnold, when the band began trying acoustic shows at the tail end of 2013, the response was so strong that a full tour, dubbed “Songs from the Basement,” was hatched.

“This is almost the anti-rock show,” Arnold said, laughing. “But what we wanted to do is give fans an experience where it’s like they’re in on a band practice. We have an intimate setting, like it’s our basement, with couches and lamps. We play plenty but we also get to mess around a bit and tell some stories behind the songs in a way that lets people absorb them a bit more. And it’s really interesting for me to get to sit back and sing the songs, not just perform the songs.”

The last few years haven’t been the most stable for 3 Doors Down. Lineup changes included the exits of two founding members: guitarist Matt Roberts, who departed for health reasons in 2012, and bassist Todd Harrell, who was tossed from the band in February 2014 after being arrested on drunken driving charges in Mississippi, nearly a year after being charged with vehicular homicide in Tennessee.

Its current lineup includes Arnold, lead guitarist Chris Henderson, drummer Greg Upchurch, guitarist Chet Roberts and bassist Justin Biltonen. Arnold confirmed that the band has another album on the way in 2015. The band has also begun to play new material on the road.

“I’m having more fun than I think in years,” he acknowledged. “It feels like we’ve all been able to take a new breath.”